Enzyme based electrochemical sensors are widely used in the detection of analytes in clinical, environmental, agricultural and biotechnological applications. Analytes that can be measured in clinical assays of fluids of the human body include, for example, glucose, lactate, cholesterol, bilirubin and amino acids. Levels of these analytes in biological fluids, such as blood, are important for the diagnosis and the monitoring of diseases.
Electrochemical assays are typically performed in cells with two or three electrodes, including at least one measuring or working electrode and one reference electrode. In three electrode systems, the third electrode is a counter-electrode. In two electrode systems, the reference electrode also serves as the counter-electrode. The electrodes are connected through a circuit, such as a potentiostat. The measuring or working electrode is a non-corroding carbon or metal conductor. Upon passage of a current through the working electrode, a redox enzyme is electrooxidized or electroreduced. The enzyme is specific to the analyte to be detected, or to a product of the analyte. The turnover rate of the enzyme is typically related (preferably, but not necessarily, linearly) to the concentration of the analyte itself, or to its product, in the test solution.
The electrooxidation or electroreduction of the enzyme is often facilitated by the presence of a redox mediator in the solution or on the electrode. The redox mediator assists in the electrical communication between the working electrode and the enzyme. The redox mediator can be dissolved in the fluid to be analyzed, which is in electrolytic contact with the electrodes, or can be applied within a coating on the working electrode in electrolytic contact with the analyzed solution. The coating is preferably not soluble in water, though it may swell in water. Useful devices can be made, for example, by coating an electrode with a film that includes a redox mediator and an enzyme where the enzyme is catalytically specific to the desired analyte, or its product. In contrast to a coated redox mediator, a diffusional redox mediator, which can be soluble or insoluble in water, functions by shuttling electrons between, for example, the enzyme and the electrode. In any case, when the substrate of the enzyme is electrooxidized, the redox mediator transports electrons from the substrate-reduced enzyme to the electrode; when the substrate is electroreduced, the redox mediator transports electrons from the electrode to the substrate-oxidized enzyme.
Recent enzyme based electrochemical sensors have employed a number of different redox mediators such as monomeric ferrocenes, quinoid-compounds including quinines (e.g., benzoquinones), nickel cyclamates, and ruthenium ammines. For the most part, these redox mediators have one or more of the following limitations: the solubility of the redox mediators in the test solutions is low, their chemical, light, thermal, or pH stability is poor, or they do not exchange electrons rapidly enough with the enzyme or the electrode or both. Additionally, the redox potentials of many of these reported redox mediators are so oxidizing that at the potential where the reduced mediator is electrooxidized on the electrode, solution components other than the analyte are also electrooxidized; in other cases they are so reducing that solution components, such as, for example, dissolved oxygen are also rapidly electroreduced. As a result, the sensor utilizing the mediator is not sufficiently specific.